The 2025 edition of the Raindance Film Festival continues its tradition of supporting first-time filmmakers, with a significant portion of its lineup dedicated to debut features. Among these, sixteen standout horror films exemplify the festival’s commitment to showcasing innovative and diverse voices in the genre.
Raindance: A Launchpad for Emerging Talent
Raindance has established itself as a pivotal platform for debut filmmakers, particularly in the horror genre. The festival’s emphasis on first-time directors provides them with invaluable exposure and opportunities to connect with industry professionals. Through its comprehensive industry programme, Raindance offers workshops, masterclasses, and networking events that equip emerging filmmakers with the tools and knowledge to advance their careers.
The festival’s commitment to showcasing debut features is evident, with over 75% of the films in competition being first-time works. This focus not only highlights the festival’s dedication to nurturing new talent but also underscores the growing prominence of horror as a genre for emerging filmmakers to explore.
Looking Ahead
As the landscape of cinema continues to evolve, horror remains a dynamic and accessible genre for debut filmmakers. Festivals like Raindance play a crucial role in providing these filmmakers with the platform and recognition they need to succeed. With its unwavering support for innovative storytelling and emerging voices, Raindance 2025 promises to be another landmark year for debut horror films, paving the way for the next generation of filmmakers to make their mark on the industry.
Buy a Raindance Horror Pass for ALL the Horror films – Just £75 – HERE
Deformelody (Debut Feature)
USA | Director: Joshua Rivera | Writer: Joshua Rivera | Producer: Joshua Rivera, Geneviéve Velez | Principal Cast: Joshua Rivera, Shaun Weiss, Caroline Mitchell, Sebastian Davis, Cheyanne Taylor
Runtime: 154 min
The director will be in attendance for a Q&A
This Horror Satire tells the story of a pop culture-obsessed serial killer who terrorizes L.A. Through his Manifesto entries we discover his mission, to bring Americans together by killing everyone equally and confronting his dark past. Shot by a crew of 2 over 3 years for $4,000, on a cellphone.
Showings:
Buy tickets to Deformelody HERE
The Invisible Half (nominated Best Performance in a Debut Feature)
Japan | Director: Masaki Nishiyama | Writer: Masaki Nishiyama | Producer: Atsushi Sakamoto, Noboru Suzuki(Co-Producer) | Principal Cast: Lisa Siera , Miyu Okuno , Runa Hirasawa
Runtime: 106 min
Elena, a “half” Japanese high school girl, struggles with the feeling she’s not Japanese. While constantly watched, she discovers she is also being watched by something else—a monster that can only be seen through her smartphone and whose sounds can only be heard through her earphones.
Showings:
Fri, Jun 20th, 10:30 AM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets to The Invisible Half HERE
Thinestra (Debut Feature)
USA | Director: Nathan Hertz | Writer: Avra Fox-Lerner, Nathan Hertz (Story By) | Producer: Kelly Ann Parker, Alexandra Lubenova | Principal Cast: Melissa Macedo, Michelle Macedo, Gavin Stenhouse, Mary Beth Barone, Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh
Runtime: 87 min
It’s a sweltering Christmas in Los Angeles. Penny—haunted by binge eating and body dysmorphia—takes Thinestra, a mysterious Ozempic-like drug. That night, she violently expels grotesque masses of fat. But the flesh returns—twisted, ravenous, reborn as PENELOPE. As her doppelgänger wreaks bloody havoc, Penny fights to regain control.
See Thinestra trailer Here
Showings:
Fri, Jun 20th, 1:00 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Thinestra HERE
Our Happy Place (Debut Feature)
USA | Director: Paul Bickel | Writer: Paul Bickel | Producer: Paul Bickel, Raya Miles, David Ho, Tracie Thoms | Principal Cast: Raya Miles, Paul Bickel, Tracie Thoms, Eugene Byrd, Allyson Fasso
Runtime: 90 min
Raya wakes in the forest, cold and confused, with no memory of how she got there. Each day, it happens again. By the third day, she wakes in a shallow grave. The graves deepen each time, as if an unseen force is burying her alive. Back in her cabin, she’s haunted by visions of tortured women whose screams echo in her mind. Night after night, her visions intensify, blurring the line between dream and reality. As the hauntings intensify, Raya must confront a horrifying truth that shatters everything she had believed
Watch Our Happy Place Trailer Here
Showings:
Fri, Jun 20th, 3:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Sat, Jun 21st, 3:45 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 3
Buy tickets for Our Happy Place HERE
Hooves
Sri Lanka/USA | Director: Akash Sunethkumara | Writer: Akash Sunethkumara | Producer: Udeesha Dilanka | Principal Cast: Sanjeewa Upendra, Danushka Dias, Kavishka Warnakula
Runtime: 23 min
On his annual hunting trip to his ancestral village, the skeptical Pathum learns about the tale of the ‘Kura Raaksha’, a hoofed-demon that is supposedly haunts the woods. His skepticism is soon put to the test as mysterious events occur and he realizes that some actions indeed have terrifying consequences.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 4:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Hooves HERE
The Run
USA/Italy | Director: Paul Raschid | Writer: Paul Raschid | Producer: Seth Michaels, Sara Sometti Michaels | Principal Cast: Roxanne Mckee, George Blagden, Dario Argento, Franco Nero, Fabio Testi
Runtime: 90 min
An interactive film. A famous fitness influencer’s morning run turns into a fight for survival when she’s hunted by killers, and her fate depends on the viewer’s choices that determine if she and a local farmer she meets live or die.
Showings:
Fri, Jun 20th, 6:45 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for The Run HERE
Saturnalia (Debut Feature)
USA | Director: Daniel Lerch | Writer: Daniel Lerch, Julia Nilsen, Darrell Workman | Producer: Vivian Owen | Principal Cast: Sophia Anthony, Velvet, Dante Blake
Runtime: 100 min
Saturnalia is a high-concept homage to the cerebral and stylish world of the Italian Giallo films of the 1970s. After the mysterious death of both her parents, Miriam Basconi, a newcomer to a prestigious boarding school, realizes that the macabre institution and its cruel headmistress are a front for something much more evil. The film is scored by the legendary Claudio Simonetti, composer of Suspiria, Deep Red, and Dawn of the Dead.
Showings:
Fri, Jun 20th, 9:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Saturnalia HERE
Loner (Debut Feature) (nominated Best Performance, Feature, and Director in UK category)
UK | Director: Charlie Robb, Douglas Tawn | Writer: Charlie Robb | Producer: Dillon Hollis | Principal Cast: Charlie Robb, Kat Johns-Burke, Jessica Summer, Douglas Tawn
Runtime: 99 min
Aspiring vlogger Angus embarks on a wilderness retreat to make videos about nature and disconnecting from city life. But an ancient presence protects the woods, and Angus is held at the mercy of a higher natural order. Loner is a raw, found-footage folk horror with a darkly comic pulse.
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 10:30 AM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Loner HERE
Shaman
Ecuador / UK / USA | Director: Antonio Negret | Writer: Daniel Negret | Producer: Daniel Negret, Luiza Ricupero Negret, Antonio Negret, Christian Rojas España | Principal Cast: Sara Canning, Daniel Gillies, Jett Klyne, Alejandro Fajardo, Humberto Morales
Runtime: 93 min
While working to convert an Indigenous community in Ecuador, a devout missionary’s son falls mysteriously ill. As tensions rise with a local Shaman, she uncovers a darker truth: her son is possessed by a malevolent, ancient force. To save him, she must confront a power older than her faith—and the terrifying limits of belief.
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 1:00 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Shaman HERE
The First
USA | Director: Susan Ruth | Writer: Susan Ruth | Producer: Susan Ruth, John Penney | Principal Cast: Carlos Cameron, Tiffany Cornwell, Jamieson Rhyme, Emma Rose Maloney
Runtime: 15 min
Michael Phillips is a man. At least that’s what his father has informed him on the day of Michael’s fourteenth birthday. The year is 1928, and the fidgety, unsure boy waits his turn to experience a family tradition that has been a rite-of-passage in his family for generations. As the night progresses, his anticipation is met with terror, as he navigates expectations and a millennia of wrongdoing.
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 3:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for The First HERE
Hole
Slovenia | Director: Dejan Babosek | Writer: Dejan Babosek, Lea Cok, Marko Plantan | Producer: Dejan Babosek, Borut Berden | Principal Cast: Lea Cok, Marko Plantan, Darja Krhin, Katja Fasink
Runtime: 71 min
A couple of con artists seduce and rob wealthy divorcees and widows. Due to his enormous sexual appetite and her morbid jealousy, their robbery of a rich seductress goes awry. Believing they have killed her, they drive to a remote forest where they intend to bury her body. While they are digging a grave, she wakes up and escapes. As they hunt her down, a lethal game of cat and mouse ensues.
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 3:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy your tickets for Hole HERE
Srishti (Debut Feature)
India | Director: Paul Antar | Writer: Paul Antar | Producer: Matthew Samuel Kilari | Principal Cast: Sumeet Thakur, Chitrangada Satarupa, Indira Tiwari, Debdeep Mukherjee, Murari Kumar
Runtime: 95 minNeerav, a nihilistic photographer haunted by childhood guilt, travels to the remote Himalayan Sector K to investigate a mysterious phenomenon. As obsession consumes him, fate drags him through a series of unfortunate events that manifest a terrifying curse, until reality itself begins to fracture beyond repair.
View Srishti Trailer
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 6:00 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Srishti HERE
Snatchers (Debut Feature) (nominated Discovery Award)
Australia | Director: Craig Alexander, Shelly Higgs | Writer: Craig Alexander | Producer: Craig Alexander, Shelly Higgs, Sebastian Chan, Denai Gracie | Principal Cast: Hannah McKenzie, Craig Alexander, Justin Hosking
Runtime: 82 min
A pair of old friends try to make a quick buck selling the organs of a fresh corpse but get thrown a curveball when she wakes up on the operating table.
Showings:
Sat, Jun 21st, 8:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Snatchers HERE
Dui Shaw
Bangladesh | Director: Nuhash Humayun | Writer: Nuhash Humayun, Gultekin Khan | Producer: Redoan Rony | Principal Cast: Mosharrof Karim, Afzal Hossain, Joya Ahsan, Q Nawshaba Ahmed
Runtime: 150 min
A religious hate crime unlocks a deadly curse. A fortune teller peeks into his own future. A magic village. A morbid marriage. DUI SHAW takes the dark side of contemporary South Asia and gives it a supernatural spin. A sequel to PETT KATA SHAW, winner of Best International Feature at the 2023 Raindance Film Festival.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 10:30 AM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Dui Shaw HERE
Zhaza (nominated Best International Feature)
Kazakhstan | Director: Darkhan Tulegenov | Writer: Maxim Akbarov, Timur Akbarov, Darkhan Tulegenov | Producer: Farkhad Abdraimov, Igor Tsay | Principal Cast: Erzhan Tusupov, Dilnaz Kurmangali, Gani Kulzhanov
Runtime: 90 min
In a small town, a corrupt major learns that his daughter has been raped by the chief of police. He takes him hostage and fights off the rape squads, while trying to save his daughter and establish a relationship with her.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 2:00 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Zhaza HERE
White Guilt (nominated Best Performance and Feature in UK category)
UK | Director: Marcus Flemmings | Writer: Marcus Flemmings | Producer: Marcus Flemmings, Haider Zafar, Katya Chattwell | Principal Cast: Stephanie Da Silva, Freya Crompton, Temica Thompson, Malik Kaddu, David Ajayi
Runtime: 62 min
Eleven affluent white individuals in their twenties and thirties embark on a journey aboard a bus, seeking to assuage their white guilt through a pay-to-play service. The film delves into themes of privilege, performative allyship, and the complexities of racial dynamics, offering a satirical perspective on contemporary social issues.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 4:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for White Guilt HERE
Dirty Boy (Debut Feature) (nominated Best Performance, Feature, and Cinematography in UK category)
UK | Director: Doug Rao | Writer: Doug Rao | Producer: Giles Alderson, Sarah Ann-Grill, Marek Lichtenberg, Doug Rao | Principal Cast: Graham McTavish, Stan Steinbichler, Susie Porter, Honor Gillies, Alice Lucy
Runtime: 96 min
Raised in an oppressive cult, a reclusive schizophrenic discovers that he’s being framed by the cult leaders for a series of ritualistic murders and must prove his innocence by saving their next victim and destroying the evil sect from within.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 7:00 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for Dirty Boy HERE
The Lost Episode
Canada | Director: Nick Wernham | Writer: Abaddon Night | Producer: Paul Fler, Chris Cunningham | Principal Cast: Anthony Grant, Benjamin Sutherland, Ron Lea, Linden Porco
Runtime: 82 min
Assembled by XPU$HER and made available through the Black-Torrent Release Group, The Lost Episode offers a raw and unsettling look at unaired footage captured during a police ride-along on Halloween night, 2004. The film follows officers Paul Massaro and Terrence Williams as they navigate the sleepy streets of Franklin, uncovering a chain of horrifying events and a disturbing conspiracy rooted in the heart of the small town they swore to protect.
Showings:
Sun, Jun 22nd, 9:30 PM @ Vue Piccadilly – Screen 2
Buy tickets for The Lost Episode HERE
